Results tagged “Confederate cavalry” from Cannonball

"The Rebels have come! The Rebels have come!"

As news spread throughout southwestern York County, Pennsylvania, on Saturday afternoon, June 27, 1863, that Confederate cavalry was raiding f arms and stealing horses in the region, hundreds of residents went into their barns, stables, and fields and made preparations to take their horses and livestock to safety. Some hid their animals in out-of-the way woods, ravines, or hollows. Others took to the roads in an attempt to make it to Lancaster County or deeper into rural southern York County, correctly (as it turned out) assuming the Rebels would concentrate their raiding to those towns and farms along the railroad.

This snippet from a period Baltimore newspaper is illustrative of the chaos and migration caused by the raid of Lt. Col. Elijah V. White and the 35th Battalion,Virginia Cavalry.

The Maple Shade barn on the old Harrisburg Pike in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, serves as the headquarters, meeting room, and gift shop for the local historical society. Confederate raiders are known to have camped nearby on the old John Mumper farm along Logan's Run. The small sign to the right advertises my talk on J.E.B. Stuart's Ride to Dillsburg."

Not much has previously appeared in books and historical documents regarding the June 28-29, 1863, raid through extreme northwestern York County by of a portion of Confederate Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins' brigade of mounted infantry. I am currently assembling materials for an article I plan to submit to the Gettysburg Magazine regarding this incursion, and have found some interesting new material. Recently I spoke at the Northern York County Historical and Preservation Society on the topic of "J.E.B. Stuart's Ride to Dillsburg," and I included a few snippets from my recent research into Jenkins' {West} Virginians and their earlier raid, including the near-miss between Dillsburg and Franklintown between the retreating 26th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia and Jenkins' advance guard.

After the talk, Martin and Connie Trostle were among the attendees who paused to share the stories they had heard concerning the two separate Confederate raids through the Dillsburg area. Connie, the secretary of the NYCHAPS group, was kind enough to send me a copy of a transcript generated in 1930 by an older lady from Dillsburg who had been an 8-year-old girl named Anna Mumper when the Rebels came through Carroll Township in June and July of 1863. The account is fascinating, albeit heavily colored by time and dimming of memory (and the mixing up of the various raids, events, timeline, and officers). Still, much of her basic recollections corroborate other earlier accounts of events in Dillsburg (that brief account can be purchased at the NYCHAPS gift shop in the Maple Shade Barn).

Here is one anecdote with its genesis from the Anna Mumper account, with historical facts added from my research...

This old hilltop barn sits alongside York Road between Dover and Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. Thousands of cars drive past it every day, with almost none knowing (or caring I presume) about its historical significance.

Back in 1863, more than 1,000 Confederate cavalrymen under Brigadier General Wade Hampton III of South Carolina slowly rode past this massive wooden edifice in the mid-afternoon of Tuesday, July 1, 1863. They were escorting a captured Union wagon train of 125 loaded supply wagons, each pulled by a brace of mules. Another 250 or so extra mules were being herded behind the column (Stuart had cut the mulepower in half to shorten his column's length, although it also cut its speed). Also in the entourage was fabled Confederate cavalry Major General J.E.B. Stuart, who was likely the biggest star in the galaxy of Rebel generals who visited York County that summer.

The barn sat on the farm of Aaron Firestone, who very much rued Stuart's ride past his farm, for a patrol peeled off the column and rode into the farmyard, with mischief on their minds.

On July 1, 1863, concurrent with the afternoon fighting on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, more than 5,000 Confederate cavalrymen passed through Carroll Township in northwestern York County, Pennsylvania. They were commanded by Major General J.E.B. Stuart, who was marching toward Carlisle and a hoped for rendezvous with the infantry of Ewell's Corps. Stuart, hoping to get some definitive word on the location of the Army of Northern Virginia, sent out various scouting parties.

He also sent out foragers, scouring the countryside for horses, mules, and supplies. They were hard to come by in this largely rural region. A previous raid by Rebel cavalry under Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins had taken some of the horses, while hundreds of other animals had been taken to safety or hidden in the woods. A half dozen or so Carroll Township farmers had taken their horses down to Warrington Township to supposed safety on the imposing heights of Round Top mountain, but the Southerners had already found them. Several men had hidden their horses in the thick woods owned by John Cook on a farm off today's Route 74 just north of the township line; they were among the first horses discovered and seized by Stuart's column as it entered Carroll Township.

The Rebels weren't finished.

Back in November of 1907, the citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania, commissioned a copper-plated cast iron plaque commemorating the July 1, 1863, raid by Major General J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry on the town and its environs during the Gettysburg Campaign. That plaque was later moved to the Dover Fire Hall when it was built and is now on one side of a small rectangular brick pillar, along with an old fire bell and a flag pole.

The Stuart marker was one of the earliest memorials to the events surrounding Stuart's Ride unveiled in southern Pennsylvania, and it remembers the suffering of the residents of that day while their small town was occupied by three full brigades of Rebel cavalry, concurrent with the opening of the Battle of Gettysburg some 30 miles to the southwest.

As Major General J.E.B. Stuart's division of three brigades of Confederate cavalry departed Dover, Pennsylvania, on July 1, 1863, patrols fanned out in a wide swath to acquire fresh horses. More than 700 horses are known to have been taken in York County alone by Stuart's men, and another 500 by other Rebel troops that criss-crossed the county. Among Stuart's early victims as his troops left Dover was farmer Jacob Spangler, who owned this impressive characteristic red barn that still sits alongside Fox Run (not very far from two of my kids' houses in Dover Township). He lost a ten-year-old bay mare and a six-year-old black horse taken from his stable.

The Spangler clan was the hardest hit family in all of York County, as seventeen different men by that surname reported losing horses or trade goods to the Confederate raiders! In total, the Spanglers lost thirty horses, not to mention the contents of Charles Spangler's West Manchester Township store. Many of the Spanglers lived along Carlisle Road, the path that Stuart's column took to reach Dillsburg and then Carlisle. Fathers, sons, brothers, cousins, uncles - the interrelated group took a serious financial loss in terms of lost horseflesh right at the important summer harvest time.

Dawn Roser of the Codorus Valley Area Historical Society unveils the newest Pennsylvania state historical marker, this one in the historic center square of Jefferson in southern York County. The CVAHS and the borough of Jefferson's combined efforts led to the installation of this marker, which commemorates the three separate times within a week in the early summer of 1863 that the town and the surrounding region were victimized by passing combatants during the Civil War.

The color guard of the 16th Pennsylvania Infantry reenactment group was among the participants in the hour-long ceremony, which occurred on the 146th anniversary of the first Confederate raid on Jefferson. On June 27, 1863, 250 troopers from Maryland and Virginia that comprised the 35th Battalion, Virginia Cavalry rode into the square. Commanded by Lt. Col. Elijah V. White (whose descendant attended the ceremony and spent some time talking with me about her ancestors in that battalion), the Confederates raided the region for horses. One trooper spotted a little girl along the square and handed her a brooch he had stolen from a Hanover jeweler that the Rebels had chased into the countryside before robbing him.

This old farm at the intersection of Baker Road and East Berlin Road in West Manchester Township was among the hundreds of similar farms visited by patrols from Confederate Major General J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry division during its sojourn through York County, Pennsylvania, on June 30 - July 1, 1863. More than 450 different residents of the county later reported losing horses to Stuart's column.

Among Stuart's diverse regiments was the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry, which had lost its commander as a prisoner or war during the Battle of Hanover. The regiment had been severely depleted in manpower during the earlier battles of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville in the Loudoun Valley prior to Stuart's Ride around the Union Army, and the fighting at Hanover had not helped the matter, nor had the grueling retreat northward toward Dover. Horses played out, soldiers rode together on the remaining horses, and patrols scoured the countryside for fresh horses and mules.

Included in the saddle weary ranks was James A. Buxton, an 18-year-old soldier who had only joined Company H of the 2nd North Carolina in February of that year. Already he had seen considerable combat action and was now a seasoned veteran. He had been slightly wounded at the June 9 Battle of Brandy Station and had been reassigned to General Stuart's headquarters as a special courier while he recuperated. He was still serving in that capacity as the division rode through Maryland and southern Pennsylvania during the early stages of the Gettysburg Campaign. He would remain as one of Stuart's couriers throughout the Battle of Gettysburg and the rest of the summer campaign, returning to his regiment in September prior to the Bristoe Campaign.

Years later in the pages of the Confederate Veteran magazine, Jim Buxton, by then a senior citizen living in Newport News, Virginia, recalled his brief visit to York County...

Jacob Deisinger, like so many of his fellow farmers in York County, Pennsylvania, during the Civil War had either ignored the repeated warnings in mid-June 1863 that the Confederates were coming, or did not receive them for some reason. Deisinger, born in 1818 in the county, owned a sprawling farm off Baker Road in West Manchester Township. He married, raised a large family, and was active in his church and community. As far as can be known, he lived a productive, industrious life.

On the evening of June 30, his peaceful, secure lifestyle was temporarily interrupted by a passing patrol of Southern saddle soldiers.

The old Peter Bott, Sr. farm at 141 N. Emig Mill Road in West Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania. Bott filed a border claim after the war complaining that a large body of Confederate cavalry briefly camped on his land late on June 30, 1863.

Peter Bott was a member of a prominent family of farmers in the lower part of West Manchester Township. A small village, Bottstown, grew up around the turnpike gate on what is today U.S. Route 30 west of the city of York. Period maps are dotted with the Bott name or derivatives. Peter Bott's sprawling farm contained a hilltop cemetery that was filled with family members and nearby neighbors and distant relatives.

His farm was along the known path of J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry on the night of June 30, and was the first farm north of the turnpike (Route 30). It was (and is) prominent from the pike, and would have been a landmark in the moonlight.

Another picturesque York County farm that was visited by the Confederates during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign. This particular farm is on Taxville Road near Baker Road in West Manchester Township. The Knights of the Golden Circle operated in this region, but were most active in Codorus and North Codorus townships to the south and in Dover township to the north.

Background posts:
* The Knights of the Golden Circle
* 1863 Washington newspaper recounts outrages Rebels inflicted on York Countians

I have been fascinated by the June 1863 shenanigans of several New York con artists here in York County, Pennsylvania. These men traveled to York, set up headquarters there (presumably in a local hotel), and then canvassed the county to sell worthless certificates / tickets from the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret pro-Confederate organization with alleged ties to the Copperhead or peace movement. The buyer would pay a buck for the golden paper, and would in turn be instructed in secret hand signals similar in concept to the Masons or other secret societies of the day. Of more interest to the farmers and residents, the tickets came with the promise that the Confederates would leave their property and horses alone should war come to southern Pennsylvania. The same con game was played on residents of Franklin and Adams County, and both Jubal Early and J.E.B. Stuart commented on the unusual hand gestures in their post-Gettysburg reports.

In March and April of 1863, reports circulated in Berks County that the Rebels would be invading Pennsylvania at harvest time (mid-summer) and that the payment of $1 would protect the livestock and crops (the same con as was perpetrated in southern PA). I have also read of similar accounts elsewhere.

Here is a Harrisburg reporter's view on the situation (forgive the butchered Pennsylvania Dutch: I do not speak the language and it was hard to make out the words of the microfilmed old newspaper).

Confederate cavalrymen stole three horses from this old barn in West Manchester Township on July 1, 1863.

Background post: The Knights of the Golden Circle

A Washington, D.C. newspaper reporter visited York County and interviewed various farmers to here their tales of the Confederate occupation. His article first appeared the week after the Battle of Gettysburg, and is one of the earliest accounts of the human interest stories that comprised the Gettysburg Campaign in York County. The interesting article was reprinted by the Philadelphia Press and I have reprinted it, perhaps for the first time in 146 years, here on the Daily Record's Cannonball blog. It is emblematic of the interactions between the invading Confederates and the local residents.

Such stories were often repeated (and even worse) in the South. Both armies, blue and gray, had their share of vandals, thieves, and murderers.

Long-time Cannonball reader Doug Gibboney is a Civil War buff and an active member of the Harrisburg Civil War Round Table. He lives on an historic farm raided by J.E.B. Stuart's cavalrymen during the evening march from Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, to Carlisle on July 1, 1863 concurrent with the Battle of Gettysburg. Doug sent me these photos he thought our readers might enjoy. It shows one of the few documented and marked witness trees from when the Confederates came through York and Cumberland counties. While there are scores of other such witness trees, this one may be among the oldest.

Doug writes, "This 300-year-old American sycamore is on Old Stone House Road in Monroe Township, Cumberland County. It was already 150-years-old when J.E.B. Stuart and his Rebel cavalry came past on July 1st, 1863. The tree stands just west of Route 74, the York Road, which Stuart's men used on their approach to Carlisle."

Rural York County pastoral scene. Exact location unknown. Marion Post Wolcott photograph from the 1930s; courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Often on weekends and during lunch hour, I enjoy traveling the byways and back roads of my adopted home of York County, Pennsylvania. Usually armed with period maps (either the 1860 Shearer & Lake map or the 1876 Atlas of York County) and modern Google maps, I hunt for farms known to have been visited by the Confederate army in the summer of 1863 during the Gettysburg Campaign. Dozens of photographs of these house and barns have been previously posted on this Cannonball blog, and I have a healthy backlog of photos awaiting future publication.

In most cases, particularly in extreme southern and northern York County, the vintage farmhouses and barns are still extant, albeit in some cases heavily modified or modernized, and, in a few instances, modern barns have replaced the antebellum structures.

However, around York city, the old barns and houses in many cases are long gone, having been swallowed up by modern construction and urban sprawl. This is particularly true in Spring Garden, Springettsbury, and York townships.

At times, I have been lucky enough to find old photographs of these long ago farmhouses once visited by the Confederates. Here's one example...

The old Cicero G. Weigel house at 1931 Derry Road in West Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania, has witnessed a lot of York County's changes. it dates back to before the American Civil War, when the township was agrarian, dotted with mills and farms. Now, the township is marked by bedroom communities, sprawling shopping complexes, and at times maddening traffic. Photo courtesy of Mel Miller.

I met Mel Miller back before all my eye problems when I was speaking at the March meeting of the Greater Dover Historical Society. We had a pleasant conversation, and Mel remarked that he was the historian for the West Manchester Township Historical Society. I shared with him that portion of my county-wide database of all Civil War damage claims that I have compiled over the years (more than 800 claims), and Mel has since invited me to speak to his organization on Confederate activity in the township during the Gettysburg Campaign. He and I are working on a date to get together to combine our efforts and exchange knowledge (and to take photos for this blog and for an upcoming new book).

Mel graciously provided me with an article he wrote for the newsletter of the West Manchester Township Historical Society. The society is open to any interested persons, and they maintain a website with some historical information of use, particularly the cemetery information for those of you readers with ancestors buried in the area. If you are interested, membership in the group starts at only $20 a year.

Background posts:
In the Footsteps of J.E.B. Stuart: Rebels Ride from Hanover, Part 1
In the Footsteps of J.E.B. Stuart: Rebels Ride from Hanover, Part 2

As the advance elements of Maj. Gen. James E. B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry rode away from the Battle of Hanover in southwestern York County, Pennsylvania, they used a variety of roads to head toward Jefferson, a crossroads hamlet where Stuart would pause, set up artillery, and regroup. Thanks to research by Hanover author and Licensed Battlefield Guide John T. Krepps, we have a strong indication of the roads Stuart used and the various farms along the way that his men raided for horses and/or supplies. These findings originally appeared in the Holiday 2003 issue of Blue & Gray magazine.

In the last post, Stuart's column, likely Fitzhugh Lee's brigade, turned off the Baltimore Pike onto Fuhrman Mill Road, which in 1863 was a winding, hilly dirt road that served as a transportation artery for a variety of farms in the area. Many of the Keystone farmers would find Rebels riding around their barnyards and stables, hunting for horses.

Background post: Rebels Ride from Hanover, Part 1

As some of J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalrymen escorted 125 captured Union supply wagons across Fairview Road south of Hanover, Pennsylvania, following the Battle of Hanover, outriders and foraging patrols frequently raided the barns and stables along the way in an effort to locate and procure fresh horses. Dozens of farmers in West Manheim Township were victimized, some to the point where they would have difficulty bringing in their harvest that summer. Among the early victims was Edward Becker, who lived off Fairview Road and Beck Mill Road. He lost a horse he valued at $100.

He would not be alone in his anger at the passing Rebels...

Early 20th century view of downtown Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, looking up Baltimore Street, the town's main street. A. N. Eslinger's post office and store were on the east side of the street in the middle of the block as one walked toward the town square from Locust Alley. Courtesy of DIllsburg Online.

Augustus N. Eslinger became the postmaster of Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, in early 1863 following a succession of other local merchants and businessmen to hold the position. Eslinger would give the office stability, capably filling the job until July 1885. A. N. and Agnes (Diller) Eslinger raised several children in Dillsburg and among the borough's leading citizens throughout the mid and late 1800s. A proud pro-Union man, he named one of his sons Edwin Lincoln Eslinger.

In 1902, the former postmaster became an author, writing and publishing an interesting little book on the history of his adopted hometown, entitled Local History of Dillsburg, Pa. By then, he was in his fiftieth year as a resident.

Among his collection of memories and thoughts is a brief treatise on the pair of Confederate cavalry incursions - one a raid by Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins and then a subsequent and unrelated trip through town by the partial division of Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, which paused in Dillsburg on July 1 after marching up from Dover, Pa.

Here is A. N. Eslinger's rarely retold eyewitness account of Dillsburg during the Gettysburg Campaign...

Dill's Tavern has been patiently and accurately restored by volunteers from the Northern York County Historical and Preservation Society (NYCHAPS).

Background post: In the Footsteps of J.E.B. Stuart: Dillsburg

Stuart's cavaliers rested in Dillsburg before he ordered Fitzhugh Lee's column to head for Carlisle, trailed by the brigade of John R. Chambliss, Jr. Before the Rebels left in the late afternoon, they visited most of the merchants in town. Some of the DIllsburgers suffered rather severe losses; other had removed much of their inventory to safety well before the Confederates arrived in town.

Many of the Rebels watered their horses and refreshed themselves from a well outside the venerable Dill's Tavern. After a long day in the saddle riding up from Dover, the cool well water was welcomed, and lines of Southerners patiently waited their turn for a drink.

Meanwhile, a few officers took the opportunity to take a drink of a different sort, visiting Dillsburg's taverns for a meal and some more potent beverages.

Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, is the principal town in Carroll Township in northwestern York County, Pennsylvania. Irish-born Matthew Dill settled there in 1740 on a 504-acre tract, raised a company of men to fight the occasional Indian raids, and later prospered, becoming a county judge. By 1833, there were enough people living in Dillsburg for it to become incorporated on April 9 of that year. It was an important regional trade center, as well as a popular stopping place on the old state road between York and Carlisle, two of south-central Pennsylvania's most prominent towns. Dill's Tavern became a focal point of the community, providing rooms and refreshment for weary travelers.

Nestled near the termination of South Mountain and on an important road, Dillsburg during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign was the scene of a minor skirmish between the 26th Pennsylvania Militia (retreating from Gettysburg) and elements of Albert G. Jenkins' Virginia mounted infantry brigade, which was raiding the region for horses (we will have a detailed look at Jenkins' seldom discussed raid in a series of future posts).

On the late afternoon of July 1, 1863, more than 5,000 Confederate cavalrymen under Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart arrived in Dillsburg.

Stories abound about the brief incursion...